Methods for making coated fiber strands having one or more heterogeneous regions

Abstract

A coated fiber strand including at least one heterogeneous region present in one or more coating layers. The heterogeneous region(s) preferably comprises a material useful for coding of the fiber. The optical fiber can include a primary coating layer and a secondary coating layer where the heterogeneous region(s) defines one or more colored stripes in or on the secondary coating layer. A method for forming a coated fiber, such as an optical fiber, includes introducing at least one coating layer onto a fiber strand such that one or more coating layers cover a portion of the surface of the strand. At least one heterogeneous region is introduced into or onto one or more coating layers, and the strand is cured to provide a desired product. A desired functionality, e.g., coding, can thus be introduced onto a fiber without adversely effecting subsequent processing steps, e.g., curing of the coating layer(s).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.